Israel Launches Operation At UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza City Threatening Ceasefire Talks
by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Early Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched an operation in southern Gaza City, targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists at a United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters. Hamas warned on Telegram that this renewed IDF campaign threatens ceasefire talks.
In a Monday morning statement, the IDF reported that its 99th Division, in a joint operation with Shin Bet, was operating at UNRWA’s headquarters based on intelligence that terrorists were once again utilizing the facility.
“The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law and against the Hamas and PIJ terror organizations, which systematically operate and carry out terrorist activity from inside civilian infrastructure, including UNRWA compounds, which are used by them to plan and carry out terror activity against the State of Israel,” the IDF said.
In Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, troops from the 98th Division killed dozens of Hamas operatives involved in anti-tank attacks and rocket fire on Israel, including through airstrikes, the IDF reported. The IDF has been operating in Shejaiya for the past week and a half.
In Rafah, the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city, the IDF stated that 162nd Division troops killed over 30 gunmen in the past day and located tunnel shafts and weapons. The offensive in Rafah began in early May.
The prolonged conflict in Gaza, resulting from Israel’s nine-month war on Hamas, may have influenced Hamas’s recent decision to drop its demand that Israel end the war as a condition for hostage negotiations, sources told the Associated Press on Monday.
According to AP, messages describe the dire conditions in Gaza and the severe blow to Hamas’s forces, indicating a rift between Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders in Gaza regarding the desire for a deal.
During a call with mediators, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh stated that he held Netanyahu and Israel’s army fully responsible for the potential collapse of negotiations.
Hamas accused Netanyahu of “placing additional obstacles in the way of negotiations as he escalates his aggression and crimes against our people.”
Hamas stated that it had shown “flexibility and positivity to facilitate reaching an agreement to halt the Zionist aggression” in Gaza, calling on mediating countries Qatar and Egypt to stop Netanyahu’s “manipulations and crime.”
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reports that over 38,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, however this toll cannot be verified and does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists. Israel states it has killed over 15,000 terrorists in battle as well as 1,000 terrorists during the October 7 attack inside Israel.
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